Unfortunately, there won’t be a Roundtable this week, though not through a lack of trying. There was a software error that meant the conversation didn’t get recorded and I didn’t realise till just now when I tried to play it back.
The Roundtable returns next week with new discussion topics.
To read what we talked about on this week’s non-show, follow the cut:
Discussion Topic
In this week’s discussion topic, we consolidated our usual WWE and TNA topics into one we decided was our most important discussion yet. We talked about whether there is success and profit to be had in WWE or TNA, with the general feeling among the four of us being that TNA seems to be on a better footing in terms of equality between men and women — though not perfect. We told how a former WWE Diva told us that a few years ago she once had a match where the writers didn’t even give them a finish to the match, because they just didn’t care. Melanie played devil’s advocate wondering why WWE bothered to book matches if they don’t even care to book a finish which would take 30 seconds of their time. We also discussed whether, given TNA’s current downturn due to the Jarrett saga, if TNA could be on it’s way to closing and whether the Knockouts division could be a saving grace — by booking them more prominently as they already get higher ratings than the men.
The unanimous decision was that women’s wrestling would likely never be prominent in either promotion. For WWE, more work would be needed for the women to be taken seriously while TNA had less work to do. The Divas would have to break the mould of being just ‘smart, sexy powerful’ and have more focus on wrestling matches and developing character, something everyone agreed was not likely to happen.
There was some interesting discussion regarding the women’s division post-Trish, where we discussed the idea that WWE had lost confidence in the division since her departure. Despite talented all-rounders on the roster, they never get the same opportunities as Trish. Trish was seen as the main star of the division and was put into programmes where as a result of getting a rub from her, other girls were given more star power i.e. Lita, Victoria, Molly, Jazz, Mickie. There’s not even that one star today that can give the rub to the other Divas and it’s even less likely for WWE to push more than one Diva as prominently as they did Trish.
Roundtable Quiz
Steven once again won this week’s quiz beating Erin and Tiffany. Tiffany came second and Erin came last.
TV Talk
Impact – Steven and Tiffany agreed that Traci Brooks stood out more than ever, while Erin and Melanie disagreed and felt she was average in comparison to the other three Knockouts. Melanie touted Sarita‘s style and Taylor’s heart & ability.
Raw – We agreed this was one of the best matches Raw has had in a while. Erin felt Kelly Kelly was the weakest link and was exposed to be a ‘spot monkey’ in the presence of the other three. Melanie felt that while Kelly is a spot monkey in standard matches, her spots were suited to this match. It was said that Alicia Fox worked well and made Kelly look even more inferior in the ring. Steven said that Alicia isn’t really suited to being a heel as she had a grin after Beth shoved her and she got back up and in Beth’s face.
Note: This is all I can remember right now and not a full account of what went down!